‘The time has come for another great change’

"This municipality, district or otherwise, is just barely capable of getting correct utility bills to its ratepayers..."

Sir – A local opinion on local opinions….

Some degree of research in the activity of any number of local governments in KwaZulu-Natal will enlighten any interested stakeholder or member of the public that the litany of woe that resembles the Endumeni Municipality, is nothing strange or new.

A cursory glance into the bemused writings of many a concerned tourism activist, or just a concerned ratepayer, indicates the policing of municipal by-laws is science fiction in almost every one of our municipalities which still function to some degree.

The amount of money spent on cosmetic advances, like new cars for city officials, is actually obscene compared with what goes into maintenance and upkeep.

Capital projects which look wildly exciting on paper, disappear in the same old crucible every year, and the bare minimum gets done.

This municipality, district or otherwise, is just barely capable of getting correct utility bills to its ratepayers. Correct water bills are simply science fiction. The removal of refuse still gets done up to a fashion, and here is where we should say ‘thank God for small mercies’.

Town councillors appear at incidental meetings, looking very important, and they all have one thing in common. They all threaten, huff and puff, eat the sandwiches and the savouries which may get provided, and disappear back into the corridors of power without doing anything. The town Council is like some huge octopus that spread itself over the town – any town for that matter – and sucks huge amounts of money from it.

They put precious little back into it, and many rural town administrations have simply floated away with the effluent that runs down any street with an incline to it. Huge amounts of alcohol get consumed on a weekly basis.

On some darker level, this creates job opportunities for the recyclers and pickers of rubbish who get contracted to clean a town. Public toilets are an unknown facility, but it does not matter, as the majority of residents simply relieve themselves against any tree that comes handy.

The symbiotic relationship the national police should have with local municipalities, is a subject of a psychology doctorate.

Brave ratepayers in other towns have got together, formed a residents’ association with some testicular fortitude to it, appointed an attorney and declared a dispute with the town Council(s) with respect to the way they ran the town.

Municipal rates and taxes were paid into a special trust fund, administered by a lawyer, and private concerns were then contracted to do the jobs the Council had forgotten about.

This course of action is extreme and not without danger, but it frightens the lifeblood out of the current local town cabals, because it would smother them to death at their roots. It’s been done before.

Maybe its also time to find out why the tourists are no longer coming here? Or maybe it is time for some disputation – just saying.

The Local Sage


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